Bears fan holding tight to tickets

Virtually nothing could entice die-hard to part with passes for the Super Bowl.

Virtually nothing could entice die-hard to part with passes for the Super Bowl.

February 02, 2007|RUSTY NIXON Tribune Correspondent

LAKEVILLE -- Steve Read isn't going to sell his two tickets to the Super Bowl. "I already had a guy from Lakeville offer me $2,500 apiece for them," said Read, a LaVille High School English teacher. "As we were coming out of the office in Chicago, a guy offered us $3,000 apiece. I wouldn't sell them for less than a life-changing amount of money." So just how much would be "life changing"? "I don't know. If somebody wanted to offer me $40,000 to $60,000 for them, I might have to consider it," he said with a laugh. "I could put an addition on my house or buy a new boat or something." A lifelong Chicago Bears fan, he found out in early January he had won the lottery for a chance to purchase Super Bowl tickets for $600 apiece. Read has been going to Bears games since 1959 when his father took him to a game at Wrigley Field. "I remember seeing the Colts with Johnny Unitas back when they were in Baltimore," he said. He has been a season ticket holder for Bears games since 1982. "Dave Read and the Plymouth Fertilizer Co. bought them, and some years back I just took them over," he said. The last time the Bears were in the big game, in 1985, there wasn't an opportunity to go to the game. "Our name got drawn the next year (1986), but San Francisco beat us out of the playoffs so we didn't have a chance to buy any." This year, he was at the National Football Conference final game against New Orleans. "I called my wife with 12 minutes to go in the game and told her to book my flight (to Miami)," he said. The $600 seat he'll be occupying would cost $39 during the regular season, he said. "If it wasn't the Bears I wouldn't have bought them," he said. "Who cares? We're going to the Super Bowl. "I've been to a lot of great games and taken a lot of great people over the years. This is just the culmination of a lot of great memories."